European politics

Greek politics

Papaconstantinou to face an inquiry

THE Greek parliament’s debate on whether to indict a former finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, for allegedly wiping the names of three family members off a list of some 2,000 suspected tax evaders, lasted an exhausting 12 hours. Lawmakers postured for a live broadcast by state television, then argued into the early hours of January 18th about how to organise a secret ballot.

Eventually 265 out of 300 deputies voted to set up a 15-member all-party committee to assess reports by financial prosecutors about the so-called Lagarde list of Greeks with Swiss bank accounts, which was sent to Athens in 2010 when Christine Lagarde was France’s finance minister. It will interview witnesses and issue its conclusions by the end of February. A panel of senior judges will decide whether Mr Papaconstantinou should be tried before a special parliamentary tribunal.

In his own speech to parliament Mr Papaconstantinou denied tampering with the list. But he failed to give a convincing explanation of why he never gave a copy to Yiannis Kapeleris, boss of SDOE, the financial police, to make a full investigation, said some of his former colleagues from Pasok, the socialist party.

Evangelos Venizelos, his successor as finance minister and now the leader of Pasok, a partner in the three-member governing coalition, had an easier ride. Mr Venizelos did not press SDOE to investigate, either; more than a year later he sent a copy of the list on a USB stick to the office of Antonis Samaras, the prime minister. Syriza, the leftist main opposition party, accused Mr Samaras of arranging a cover-up in order to stay in government, insisting that lawmakers should vote separately on whether to indict Mr Venizelos, too. The government yielded, but only 124 lawmakers voted for Mr Venizelos to appear before the committee. The Pasok leader will thus be spared an inquiry.

Two lawmakers from the Democratic Left, the junior coalition partner, and another from Pasok defected ahead of the vote on January 18th. After losing 16 deputies during just seven months in power the government’s majority in parliament has shrunk to just 13 votes. Yet fears of more defections over the Lagarde list proved unfounded, thanks partly to Syriza’s move against Mr Venizelos. One conservative deputy said: “The leftwingers brought the issue into the open, so his detractors could drop a ballot paper into the box and feel better.”

A fresh copy of the Lagarde list sent by the French government is now being examined by SDOE. There are plenty more lists of likely tax evaders that will keep investigators busy. One contains the names of about 1,200 Greeks with bank accounts in Luxembourg and Lichtenstein. It was delivered to the right-of-centre government of Costas Karamanlis in 2008, according to one official, but then ignored. Another contains the names of scores of wealthy Greeks with mega-yachts registered in the Netherlands. A third details purchases by several hundred Greeks of high-end properties in London after the country’s financial crisis erupted in 2009. The finance ministry expects to raise as much as €3 billion ($3.9 billion) this year from Greece’s tax cheats.

Readers' comments

The Germans Dorothy?
The Germans naive?
Only the Germans have built death camps & crematoria on an industrial scale.
6 million people disappeared up their chimneys, & how many more people died in WWII, started by Germany?
The Germans are robots who will do whatever they're told to do.
Beware thinking of Germany as a virtuous role model.
They haven't changed character completely in less than one lifetime.

Heaven is where the police are British,
the lovers Italian,
the mechanics German,
the chefs French,
and it is all organized by the Swiss.
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Hell is where the police are German,
the lovers Swiss,
the mechanics French,
the chefs British,
and it is all organized by the Italians.
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The problem is the Germans think all of Europe is like Germany: proper, responsible, hard working, tax paying, and honest.
It's NOT.
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It is as if a naive Germany is just discovering the national character of Greece, Italy, Spain and France.
Dorothy, you are not in Kansas anymore.
=>Broomhilde, you are not in Westphalia anymore.

So what's the issue here? Ordinary citizens can be sent to court for much less. Why should those who were handsomely paid and swore to defend the country's interests be above reproach? This is exactly the Pangalos doctrine "just cause I did not do my job and voted for 30 years for deficit upon deficit before discovering that debt is a bad thing, appointed incompetent party members to key positions, threw money down the drain and done nothing about public administration and tax evasion, it's Everybody's fault and YOU(the rest) should pay for it". For ordinary citizens if your kids ask you for a fancy sports car and YOU sign for a loan, it's your fault and not your kids's. The guy who signs is the guy responsible. Why should the rest have to pay for those who do not and who are effectively covered by the likes of Mr. Papaconstantinou?

Having spent time in Greece, it is clear that Greece suffers from a schizophrenic malady. It fancies its culture as Western but only insofar as the forms of that culture: a parliament, parties, elections, universities, and all manner of banks and tax offices. In fact however the real Greece under the skin is the Levant, with its corruption, graft, pay-to-play, and relationships trumping the rule of law. Nothing less than a bankruptcy or systemic earthquake-level shock will change this. Geeks are more Lebanese in their style than they will ever care to admit.

"..... death camps & crematoria on an industrial scale."
So what do you suggest, they should invade Russia and get more than one time zone? If you only have a single time zone you got to go industrial - any fool can see that. Stalin's death camps were distributed over 11 time zones, making them presumably "artisanal" per your theory.
Give it a rest as someone here already told you is right.

English of Irish extraction,both parents from Eire, for what that's worth.
The point I'm making is that the Germans have started 2 world wars, not back in history, both in the twentieth century, the latter distinguished by industrial scale brutality & genocide.

I do not, definitely do not want to see a Europe dominated by Germany.
It would be left wing dominated by it's marxist bureaucrats, (exactly like the dictators club that the UN has become,) & that is a well proven road to dictatorship, murder, misery & bankruptcy.

I'll assume jdsean is English. Never met an Englishman who could avoid commenting on WW2 within 5 minutes of meeting them. Get over it.
The English enslaved millions to build those nice English country palaces. The French enslaved Europe to realize Napoleon's dreams,the Spanish exterminated and colonized a continent and a half, and don't get me started on the Russians.

You're right of course, concentrating on Germany I'd forgotten the mass murders of outright communism, & it's death camps & it's famines. Somewhere in the region of 60 million deaths in Russia, & 90 million in China, I believe.

Well I see the EU going more left wing & dictatorial each year, & I do not approve this trend. We were sold a Common Market, not a Federal Project, which I believe will fail & end in bankruptcy & civil disorder.
The EU hasn't been able to get it's accounts signed off by it's auditors for 19 years I think. Why are we still propping up this failing experiment?

Walk into any North American bookstore and you will see a large section devoted to the Second World War, Hitler and the concentration camps. It is the subject of Britain's "finest hour" and an indivisible part of its national identity. Annually, Hollywood turns out, and often rewards, a steady supply of films on the Holocaust many, like Spielberg's, made with extraordinary talent and skill. Holocaust references haunt any discussion on the Middle East. Holocaust studies have become part of the curriculum in high schools in America and in the International Baccalaureate programs across the world. WWII is both the foundation and the present bond of the European Union. It dominates German foreign policy to this day and well into tomorrow.

Second World War expressions, examples and terms have become part of our daily discourse and paradigms. This is a subject that will never rest, certainly not in the lifetime of anyone reading this, and we had best get used to it.